PITTSBURGH — Nurses at Magee-Womens Hospital led the Labor Day parade of thousands here Sept. 1. In mid-August they voted to join the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania by a vote of 402 to 305.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the largest hospital system in western Pennsylvania, owns more than 40 hospitals and is notoriously anti-union. This was the first successful nurses’ organizing effort at any UPMC facility.
Winning adequate staffing levels was the central issue driving the campaign. Nurses at some other area hospitals recently won union contracts with improved staffing levels and significant raises.
“It took a long time to get the union,” Jean Stone, a labor and delivery nurse, told the Militant. “We tried 10 years ago but failed. To organize for a union ‘yes’ vote, we talked it up at work, did a lot of phone work and held many weekly meetings. We were all there for the vote count. There was elation, it was a huge relief.”
“But now that we won,” she said, “we’re charged with working with those who aren’t happy with the result. We want to bring them in, make them feel better about being union now.”
On Sept. 9, SEIU posted that Advanced Practice nurses at the same hospital also voted to join the union. The 60 new members include nurse practitioners, neonatal nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and others.